Fall is fast approaching, which means Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s Top 500 Wrestlers list has arrived to spark thousands of opinions from wrestlers and fans alike. And while you can order the full PWI 500 magazine to find out everyone who made the list, the top 10, and more importantly, #1 overall, has already been revealed. On today’s Busted Open Radio, PWI’s Al Castle and Candace Cordelia revealed that Roman Reigns was officially the #1 wrestler in the 2022 PWI 500. PWI itself confirmed the news while promoting the list on Twitter. “As just announced on Busted Open Radio, Roman Reigns is once again the #1 wrestler on the PWI 500,” the tweet read. This is Reigns’ eighth top 10 appearance, having made this elite company twice as many times as he has finished outside of it. He first won the #1 spot in 2016 and finished #2 last year, behind only Kenny Omega. Castle and Cordelia also revealed the rest of the top 10 on Busted Open Radio, who posted the list on Twitter. Reigns was followed by NJPW’s Kazuchika Okada, AEW stars CM Punk and “Hangman” Adam Page, and WWE’s Bobby Lashley. Rounding out the top 10 were AEW-turned-WWE star Cody Rhodes, AEW’s Bryan Danielson, AAA Mega Champion Hijo del Vikingo, WWE Big E and former ROH World Champion, and PWI hotshot Jonathan Gresham. The top 10 was largely made up of United States stars, with Okada and Vikingo the only foreign talents to top the list. Okada remains the only foreign talent in history to be ranked #1 in PWI, having earned the honor in 2017. For Vikingo, the AAA star becomes the first luchador to enter the top 10 since 2015, when Alberto El Patron captured ninth place.
